• Y Du, U Ellert, W Zhuang, and H Knopf.
• Department of Epidemiology and Health Reporting, Division of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany. DuY@rki.de
• Eur J Pain. 2012 Jul 1;16(6):934-43.

BackgroundPrevious studies suggest that pain management by analgesic medications may be low among children. This study aims to investigate analgesic use and its correlates among children in Germany.MethodsAnalgesic use during a 1-week period was investigated in a community sample of 14,836 children and adolescents aged between 3 and 17 years in Germany. SPSS complex sample method was used to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of analgesic use among the general child population and among those children with pain in the same child population.ResultsThe prevalence of analgesic use was 8.9% among the general child population and 17.5% among children with pain that occurred at least once a week. Paracetamol (acetaminophen), aspirin and ibuprofen were the most frequently used paediatric analgesics, accounting for two-thirds of all analgesics. The vast majority of painkillers were self-medicated (67%, bought over the counter or obtained from other sources), used for a short term within 1 week (92%) and taken for the treatment of pain (85%). Use of analgesics was closely associated with girls, older age groups, children with a poor overall health status and children with recurrent pain, irrespective of family immigrant background and socioeconomic status.ConclusionAnalgesic use appears to be low among children in Germany, reflecting largely the fact that pain perceived among children under ambulant care may be mild to moderate and does not need analgesic medications. As the majority of paediatric analgesics were self-medicated, use of analgesics still should be closely monitored particularly among specific subpopulations such as adolescents to avoid potential abuse.© 2011 European Federation of International Association for the Study of Pain Chapters.

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